Appropriate Response
by AllOverTheWorld
Summary: Parker goes missing,as in dropped of the map, vanished, poof, but when she resurfaces there is some revenge to be exacted and Eliot learns the definition of appropriate response. Rated for langauge and violence.
1. Lost and Found

**Title: Appropriate Response **

**Author: AllOverTheWorld **

**Ships: Maybe Parker/Eliot but let's have them as friends for the moment. **

**Summary: Parker goes missing but when she resurfaces there is some revenge to be exacted and Eliot learns the definition of appropriate response. **

**Author's Note: **

**(1) Thanks to csimesser1, jd, Frankies Girl 21, Irish63116, race2win and b-mystique for reviewing ****Being Broken****. It means a lot to me that you guys took the time to read it and, best of all, let me know what you thought. **

**(2) I had finals all of last week, hence my absence on any of the fanficition fandoms. Anyway the quote below is my absolute favorite by Eliot, I think it describes him perfectly. That, along with my love of Eliot/Parker, resulted in this. Yes, it is going to be a multi-chapter fic. How long, I don't know because I have an idea of where this is going to go but after that…it's really up to you guys. **

**(3) I rated this for violence and langauge that **_**will (or already has) **_**occure later in the story. **

**Enjoy. **

* * *

"_What? What are you talking about? I only use violence as an appropriate response" _

_-Eliot Spencer _

_Season Two, Episode Twelve: The Zanzibar Marketplace Job _

* * *

Eliot got angry often, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, he just had an explosive personality. This in mind the list of things that can, and often do, set him off is surprisingly small. It consists of: people that try to hurt him, people that abuse kids, dirtbags, douchebags and liars. Considering the fact that everybody lies. Maybe his list isn't so small.

"Where's Parker?"

The question rolls so easily off his lips and yet, combined, the words are quite foreign. Yes, Parker has the tendency to disappear but the rest of them can always figure out a reason. They can always deduce, using Parker logic, where and why she's gone. Right now they can't think of anything. Hardison's already checked all the local museums and art galleries for anything rare and/or expensive but nothing popped out at him. Nate, Eliot and Sophie have checked all of Parker's known safe houses in the area and came up with nothing. They all looked just as abandoned as the last time they had checked them.

Now the four of them were sitting in silence, each worrying and wondering where their thief had gone and why she wasn't contacting them. Hardison was staring blankly at his computer screen, hoping that one of the multiple searches he had running on Parker and all of her known aliases would come up with something. Nate drank blindly from a bottle of Scotch Whiskey and Sophie did nothing to stop him, to absorbed in her own, somewhat maternal, worries. This left Eliot, who was not drinking, or staring, but he was worrying. This entire situation was peterbing because somewhere, deep down, he knew in his gut that this was not a normal Parker disappearance.

It didn't have any of the normal characteristics of her dropping off of the face of the earth. Nothing expensive had suddenly gone missing, nor had anything happened during their last con that seemed to have spooked her. This was just plain weird and Eliot didn't like weird.

"You think that if anyone of us knew we would be sitting here?" Hardison said, unable to keep the harshness out of his voice.

"Look man-" Eliot began but Nate stopped him, setting down the glass of alcohol and clearing his throat before speaking.

"Don't start fighting with each other." He said, his words slurred slightly but under the seriousness of his tone it was barely noticeable "The thing about Parker is that if she doesn't want to be found, you won't find her. It doesn't matter how hard you look, but until she's good and ready, she'll be a ghost."

"You know this how?" Hardison asked, looking doubtful.

"How soon you forget that, at one point or another, I have tried to chase down all of you guys. I know how she works, at least when she's on the run, or hiding. She's become an expert at disappearing, we won't find her until she's ready to be found."

"So that's it?" Hardison asked "She could be in danger and you want to just sit here and wait for her to come waltzing through the door?"

Nate nodded "It's our only option at this point."

Hardison was about to come up with a witty response but he was distracted by the sudden vibration of Eliot's phone. It had been resting on the table, lifeless and silent, up until this moment and even as they all craned their necks to see the caller ID, Eliot snatched it up.

"_Eliot?" _

He knew that voice, or at least he thought he did. The person on the other end of the line sounded scared, more scared than he had ever heard her in his life "Yes." He said, keeping his face and tone as neutral as possible.

"_I'm scared."_

Not good. Not good at all "What about?" Eliot asked, avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room, doing his best to concentrate on the voice on the phone.

_Sobs. _

Eliot closed his eyes, this was really fucking bad.

"Is that Parker?" Hardison asked

Eliot nodded.

"Lemme talk to her." He said, his tone angry, as he made to grab the phone from Eliot's hand. That plan was foiled as Eliot leaned out of reach and smacked Hardison's hand away.

"What's going on Parker?" Eliot asked "I can only help you if you tell me what's going on." His tone was mild, like trying to coax information from a small child.

"_35__th__ and Calumet." _

Eliot stood up, slipping the phone back into his phone and grabbed his jacket off of the chair he had been sitting in.

"Where do you think you're going?" Hardison asked

"I'm going to find Parker." Eliot growled

'I'm coming with you. I have some words to say to that woman." Hardison said, standing up and making to join Eliot by the door.

He was stopped by Nate who shook his head "Let him go alone Hardison."

Hardison's jaw dropped and he spluttered angrily "What-why?"

Before Nate could answer Eliot said "Because she called me, not you. If she had wanted you to come, she would have sent a fuckin' e-mail or something." He said, before disappearing out of the door, slamming it as he left.

* * *

By the time Eliot parked his car in a parking lot at 35th and Calumet it was dark and the wind was bitter cold as he stepped out of the car and onto the asphalt. The entire drive over here had been filled with him replaying the conversation over and over again in his mind. He had known Parker, on a personal level, for three years and never in that time had he heard her say the words _I'm scared, _they didn't seem to be in her vocabulary. She was, after all, an adrenaline junkie; she craved the rush that resulted from jumping off buildings and creeping around in musty air ducts.

Where this desire for adrenaline had spouted from Eliot could only guess, but even then his guesses were haphazard at best. Little was known about Parker or her past, save she had had a younger brother who died in a biking accident and that she had been through the dark-side of the foster system. Other than those two facts everything else about her remained shrouded in mystery, no one even know her real name.

However the sense of mystery seemed oddly fitting for Parker. Knowing nothing about her made her all the more unpredictable, something that, in her line of work, made her extremely dangerous. Eliot had come to this conclusion just after meeting the entire crew. He knew that while Nate, Hardison and Sophie were dangerous in their own way, they were predictable. Hardison would use technology to exact his revenge, therefore escaping him was as easy as hiding in the woods for a while, form a new alias and blend into life. Sophie would put on an accent, speak a new language and pretend to be someone she's not, Eliot's advantage was that he knew her, he knew her face, her real voice and her weakness. As for Nate, he came a close second to Parker in terms of danger. His motives for taking a case would sometimes be unknown, while otherwise they would be crystal clear. He knew more cons than anybody else Eliot knew and had resources and intelligence on his side.

However, even after all of that Parker still poised the most threat to him. Her logic was as twisted as curly fries, often making mental leaps that the others spent minutes trying to figure out. Yet, she could break into a museum with no planning and steal their most valuable artifact in her sleep. The rules by which she lived were different than the rest; she lived on rules that had been formed when she was young. These rules focused on one thing, keeping her alive. Sure, they had expanded since then but not by much. She would do what it took to keep her self out of danger, real, life-threatening danger.

More recently, Eliot had noticed, she was becoming more comfortable in the team setting. She was taking more risks, and this was mostly a good thing, during cons, showing that she trusted her teammates to keep her safe. This was, Eliot thought, probably part of the reason why she had vanished for thirty seven hours.

"Eliot."

He jumped slightly at the sound of his own name and whirled around to see Parker standing there. He could tell in three seconds that something was wrong with her. Not just by the visible stuff, her eyes (the one that wasn't bruised) were red rimmed and blood shot (evidence she had been crying and not sleeping), bloodied and swollen lip, purple-ish green bruising around her clavicle and neck, but by the way she stood. Her right arm was cradled close to her body and her breathing was short and shallow, as if inhaling too much would cause her too much pain.

She was clothed in sweatpants and a loose fitting black hoodie, neither of which seemed to be providing her much defense against the cold. Seeing this, Eliot took of his own coat and wordlessly wrapped it around Parker before saying "Let's get inside."

His voice was calm but inside he was seething. Who had done this to her? Why had someone done this to her? Perhaps most importantly, where were they, so he could pound some sense into them?

* * *

**Interested to know what happened to Parker? What about Hardison, he didn't take being left behind so well did he? Hope you enjoyed this first chapter and the second one will be posted as soon as I have time to write it. It will probably be up tomorrow. **

**Please leave me a note if you liked it, hated it or want to know more about what happened? **

**I know that Parker disappearing is quite a popular topic but I hope that you will read this with an open mind. Mostly because I would like to know what you think of my version of that topic. **

**Thanks, **

_**AllOverTheWorld **_


	2. Explanations and Expectations

**Title: Appropriate Response **

**Author: AllOverTheWorld **

**Ships: Maybe Parker/Eliot but let's have them as friends for the moment. **

**Summary: Parker goes missing but when she resurfaces there is some revenge to be exacted and Eliot learns the definition of appropriate response. **

**Authors Note (1): Thanks to southrnbygrace, TheNaggingCube, Frankies Girl 21, Irish63116, Katie, csimesser, tiggrr527, cedricsowner, sadies, race2win, jd, Jenn11, SharkGurl, Brittany, Pamikae, HerLadyship86. **

**Authors note (2): The response to this story has been overwhelming, I just hope that I can meet all of your expectations and do the summary justice. Due to the fact that I had a snow day to day and I have one tomorrow you will get one maybe two more updates. :D **

**Enjoy **

* * *

"Parker." Eliot said gently, setting down the bag of first aid supplies he had purchased from the local drug store and looking around the motel room.

It was really quite shitty, and yes the cursing was necessary. It was needed mostly because of the mysterious stains on the mauve carpeting but also for the bare flickering bulb that hung from exposed wire that snaked back into the ceiling, the gurgling, sputtering sound that was coming from the radiator (it was supposed to be providing heat but was failing pretty miserably) and bathroom, which looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the early nineteen eighties.

"You here?" Eliot said, his senses on high alert, this place was shabby enough as it is without all the addicts, 'working girls' and god knows who else lurking around.

They had come here for the simple reason that Parker had refused to go anywhere else. Eliot had offered first to take her to one of her safe houses but she had rejected that as well as one of his own safe houses. So, against his own wishes, she had selected this dump and even more reluctantly he had left to go and retrieve first aid supplies for her various wounds. Now, upon his return, the room seemed abandoned.

Taking two, slow, cautious steps forward Eliot scanned the room for any sign of unrest or any other clues that would tell him where Parker was. At first glance he saw nothing but as he took a second glance he saw her. She was curled into such a tight ball and pressed so deeply into the corner she looked no more than a shadow.

Soft whimpers were coming from her direction and, it was barely noticeable but she was shaking, full body tremors wracking her body as Eliot stood there. His instincts were telling him to take Parker up in his arms but something was holding him back. That something was his common sense. He knew that Parker was not a child but something traumatic had happened to her, something bad. Something beyond getting her ass kicked. He knew this because the last time he had seen even remotely close to this state her like this was when the phony psychic had talked about her brother.

Crouching down so that he was at her level, but still a few meters away so as to give her space "Parker" he said "Darlin' it's Eliot."

Nothing.

"You can trust me."

Her eyes peered up at him and after a moment of studying his face her shoulders relaxed but she remained as tightly curled as before, not to mention she didn't say a word.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He said, sitting down with his back against the wall, while still leaving enough space so that she had a way to get out if she felt too trapped.

There was a pause before he heard a muffled "I know."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"I suppose I have to." Parker said, beginning to unravel herself, wincing as she did so.

Eliot nodded "Take your time." He said, he would not force her to tell him what happened but one way or another he would find out.

* * *

_Parker hummed to herself, they had just finished a con and there had been a pretty big pay off. A pay off that involved a second Swiss Bank Account and about, hmm, six zeros. These were the types of con's that made her smile, in her special happy place. So, why was she wandering around the docking yard at nine thirty pm?_

_The answer was quite simple. She liked to walk down the isles of shipping containers, loosing herself in row after row of alphanumeric boxes. For Parker these walks were soothing, plus the minor adrenaline rush that came from avoiding port security. She would often wander the streets of wherever the Leverage Team was staying if she couldn't sleep or something was bothering her. _

_However right now it was winter break and even with the chill the streets were still noisy, populated places, not somewhere she could go to relax her mind. So she had turned to the dock yards, the only people that wandered around them was the night security. Security that mainly consisted of, guys who would rather be watching the basketball game than wandering outside in the cold checking on hundreds of locked boxes. _

"_Yo, hurry up man. We got like ten seconds till the pigs come around again." _

_Parker froze midstep, just short of turning around a corner when she heard someone else, another male, respond "G, calm down. There is nuthin' they can do. Plus we got Jimmie on the inside." _

_She peered around the corner and two guys loading something from an open shipping container into black duffle bags. Parker took another step forward, her curiosity piqued as she wanted to know what they were stealing. Her mistake. Her foot landed on a twig and it snapped, the noise echoing around the shipping containers. _

_The two thieves heads snapped up and they saw Parker "Hey!" They shouted and started to chase her, unfortunately for her they had guns. How just as bad for the Parker knew how to scale shipping containers, she didn't think of this however until the men had both seen her face and got off a few shots, none hit but still. _

_Half an hour later Parker ducked around the corner into a, thinking she had escaped her pursuers once and for all. How wrong she was. _

* * *

Eliot had listened as she recanted her story in silence and sure, it did raise some questions, but it did not answer the one question that was burning in his mind. He reached out and placed one hand on her shoulder, careful to make sure that it wasn't on any of the bruises "Why didn't you come to us, come to me?" he asked

"I didn't think anything of it. We said that we were going to take a break from each other for a few days, no way was I going to show up saying I got chased by a couple of guys with guns."

"So what did you do next?" he asked, probing gently.

"I went to one of my safe houses."

"Here?" Eliot asked

"I have them everywhere." She said

Eliot sighed, he was going to have to ask her the question outright because Parker was clearly trying to avoid it "Did they come back and find you?" he asked

Parker looked away from him "Not exactly, later that day I was wandering around, looking for somewhere to eat, you know just walking. I bumped into one of the loons, I didn't notice at first until I turned down a side street and-" she broke off "They jumped me."

There was a beat of silence before Eliot made to say something but she stopped him.

"I fought back Eliot, I really did. I got one guy in the face but then-then..." she trailed off, the tears springing to her eyes and her bruises and cuts seemed to burn as she retold her story.

"I know you fought back darlin'." Eliot said, taking Parker into his arms, her head resting on his chest "I know you fought back and I'm sure that the bruise probably hurts like hell."

They sat for a while, like that, as Parker let down some of her walls and Eliot let her cry, not saying a word, not passing judgment.

Finally she stopped crying and said "You have the first aid stuff?"

Eliot looked down at her, the pale skin visible under the bruises now tinged with red from crying "Yeah" he said, helping her to her feet.

As he walked over to grab the first aid supplies and when he turned around Parker had taken off her sweat shirt revealing a mess of bruises on her stomach, even some defined enough to resemble the footprints. Bile rose in his throat as he turned to look at him and he saw a three inch long knife wound, it wasn't deep enough to cause serious damage but it probably hurt like hell.

"Don't say anything." She said, her voice barely an above a whisper.

Eliot complied and pulled out Hydrogen Peroxide, cotton balls and gauze. As he poured some of the Peroxide on one of the cotton balls and said "I'm going to start with the cut on your back." He said and as he did so, one of her hands snaked up and grabbed Eliot's hands, the one not holding the cotton balls.

Ten minutes later the cut on her back, along with several other ones had been cleaned and bandaged, she was now lying on the bed, ice packs covering most of her abdomen and she was even lying on some to help her ribs. As for Eliot he was sitting in the almost broken chair, flipping aimlessly through the magazine that had been in the drawer next to the bed. Parker had the T.V. and was watching some cop show but pretending the read the magazine gave him a front, because he was trying to figure out what to do next.

No doubt the others would want to know where he, and Parker, were and there was no way they could keep this from them, everything was too visible. At the same time he had an almost uncontrollable urge to hurt someone, well, let's be honest, he wanted to hurt the guys that had hurt Parker.

"Eliot?"

He looked up "How can I help?"

"The remote." She said "It fell."

Eliot nodded and leaned across Parker to grab it, big mistake because next thing either of them knew the door was flung open and they could both hear Hardison say "Well aint' this cute."

* * *

**Um, well, yea….**

**I don't really have a lot to say about this chapter. I know where I want the story to go and I know what I needed to happen but I just couldn't get it to sound right. Over all I think it's okay, I wonder what Hardison will think once he realizes nothing is as it seems. **

**Also if things seem like they are straying slightly from the title/summary they are not! It may venture away for a while but it will return to point. **

**Thanks, **

_**AllOverTheWorld**_


	3. Chapter 3: Authors Note

**Dear Readers, **

**First off I must apologize to you if you thought that this was an update, clearly it is not. Secondly, I must thank each and every one of you who reviewed my story, added it to your alerts or just plain read them. I do not think you know how much each and every one of you made my day. Thirdly, and most importantly, I must explain to you why I am writing this authors note. Due to some problems in my real life I must take a break from updating and writing my stories. I am not sure how long this hiatus will be, but **_**please **_**know that whenever I am able to update again, I will. **

**Thanks again and TTFN, **

**AllOverTheWorld **


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